Although I've been making progress I'm clearly not going to make the deadline tomorrow. I've invested too much effort and having too much fun to rush now, but I am going to complete this. If this could be moved to the WIP section that would be appreciated.

Here are a few little things I've been working on to keep things moving ahead. Amazing how much time these things take.First of all the radios have now been wired and are ready to be installed into the fuselage once the fuel tank is finished:

Rudder pedals. I took the advice of Shawn M and used the 1/32 photo etch from Baracudacals for the North American logo and embossed instructions. It may be a bit small but I think it works, and likely won't be seen down in the cockpit anyway. :-)

Next was the tyres, I wanted to change the tread pattern to what the RCAF used. I started with the 1/24 Grey Matter oval pattern tyres, filled the tread in with Milliput and Tamiya putty and sanded and primed them. To scribe in the circumferential tread pattern, after a bit of head scratching to figure out how to do it, I created what I will call the "Polish lathe". I put a scribing tool on its side on a layer of card stock, and added another layer for each width of tread. I held the scribing tool firm and carefully rotated the tyre (lying flat on its side) against the scribing tool hook, cautiously and slowly scribing the new tread. It was essential to keep everything steady so that the tread didn't change direction or double up in the same groove. It took a whole evening but I think it turned out fine. This photo shows the original tyre, the interim stage of filled/sanded/primed tyre, and the final product with a small flat filed on the bottom.

Last night was spent installing some not very interesting final structural bits in the wings before closing them up. I decide to add a small wing spar/support at the rear of the wing, just in front of the opening for the flaps. With the flaps cut out there was a need for some sort of support to keep the top and bottom of the wings more solid and prevent them from flexing. I also added back-stops for the machine guns and blast tubes. I decided the barrels and blast tubes will be inserted from the front once it is assembled, and the back-stops will keep them from getting pushed too far into the wing. Holes for the bomb pylons and the rocket stubs were also drilled out. Troughs were glued in place above the cartridge shell ejections slots to prevent them from being see-through.

I also spent time confirming measurements and cleaning up the drawings for the templates for the improvements made to the wheel wells and landing gear, because believe it or not, I will be doing another one of these kits soon (unless Airfix surprises us and announces a new-tool 1/24 P-51D/K ). I would like to digitally scan these too so that I could share the files if anyone is interested. They will include:

-wing spar

-roof panel for the wheel wells with a map of stringers, ribs and cut-outs

-rib templates (they might require some sanding and fiddling to fit)

-landing gear covers

-inner clam shell doors

-tail wheel enclosure

-map of piping and wiring in wheel well - won't include everything seen in photos, but will be more of a fair representation of what's in there to busy it up.

I have a couple of people interested, but if anyone else wants them let me know. Hoping to have that done this week.